New Belgium Brewing and The Lost Abbey brewery from San Marcos, California have a shared passion for a variety of things, not the least of which is the wild Belgian yeast brettanomyces. So they decided to join forces and collaborate. Lost Abbey Collaboration is brewed simply with pale malts accompanied by Target, Centennial and Sorachi hops for a hint of citrus. Focusing on their mutual respect for the ingredient, the spotlight shines on the brettanomyces, where a full brett fermentation offers bold pineapple overtones and funky, sour edge. The beer is a shining, golden shade and is warming and dry.

Tastes underattenuated and just plain messy! A slightly phenolic and very cloying finish. Another good example of why one should either stick to normal ingredients or be absolutely sure before putting the product out. Also, add hops.

I don't really mind the mouthfeel but sweetness kills it. A miserable fail of a beer; there are few "craft" beers that I would turn down and choose an adjunct lager instead. This is one of them.

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Thanks to Mike for opening this one with me. Lost Abbey and New Belgium creating a beer with Brett... what could go wrong, right? This one pours a dense shade of gold, moderately translucent with lots of tiny sediment hanging in suspension within the beer. Foamy, nearly soapy white head fizzles up and dissipates almost as quickly; moderate lacing left behind.

Whoof, the aroma is an overload of Brett and bready malt. More than I care to handle in one serving, at least. Liberal amounts of funk, biscuit, and heavy, heavy baked bread. Don't get me wrong, I love bread. But not in this capacity when describing a beer. Moderately damp, musky citrus, though not enough to give an appealing sweetness or tartness. I hate to say this, also, but I think this marks the first time I'm actually smelled "band-aids" in my beer. It's got a funky, medical, sterile, weird-ass aroma. Not a big fan - let's hope this one tastes a little better.

Well, don't get your hopes up too high. There really isn't much variety going on here, sadly. Huge, gaping quantities of Brett smash your palate - earthy, wet cardboard, band-aid, damp cellar, and medicinal off-flavors. Yuck. Up front, there's a light lemon and citrus zest that kind of spritzes the tongue for a moment, but the magnitude of Brett comes in quickly and just sweeps that under the rug.

Not sure if it's from the Brett or the malt bill, but this beer is super bread heavy, also, just like the aroma was showing. Some strange astringency wafts over my palate during each successive sip, too. Very yeasty, belligerently funky, and dryer than the Sahara in the finish. It's almost like the Lost Abbey / New Belgium were just trying to play along with this "Brett" craze, so they added a metric shit ton of it to a malt-heavy beer and tried to pass it off as a "wild ale", forgetting that more is not always better.

Very disappointed that a collab between these two breweries, who have compiled an impressive list of wild ales and beers with brettanomyces on their own, missed the mark so badly. Just a mess of a beer with no balance or effort (it seems). Extremely forgettable - Mike and I didn't even finish our pours. Pass on this one.

Bottle share at Proof thanks to jbruner. Clear pale yellow color with swirls of thin white head and a medium collar. Aroma is super grainey and light malt. Taste is very faintly grassy, and then some light malt sweetness. Not much else to this one. Thin watery body, light carbonation.

Wait for brett to show up, muddled chaos is what my palate picks up on 1st. Too young is what I am getting, too tame to even have "Brett" part of its name. Why is this beer so sweet as well? I am all for collabs but this one missed its mark.

The beer pours a hazy yellow color with a white head. The aroma is not too exciting. I get a lot of husky grain notes, with a little bit of brett and leather notes hidden in the background. The brett is more prevalent in the flavor. I get some nice leather notes, as well as some toffee and biscuit malt, some grassy and citrusy hops and some grain. I don't get any real sourness, only a hint of frunk from the brett and some leather notes. Medium mouthfeel and medium carbonation. Not a bad beer by any means, but definitely a beer that didn't live up to expectations.

Taste: Still no Brett, or maybe just the slightest hint. That might be okay (despite the misleading name), so does the rest of the beer taste good? No, not really. Strong toast and biscuit with a really odd hop flavor (grass, metal, rotten citrus) and some overripe banana. Tastes like a way too boozy Marzen with some Belgian undertones.